Infinite Volume and Continuum Limits of the Landau-Gauge Gluon Propagator

We extend a previous improved action study of the Landau gauge gluon propagator, by using a variety of lattices with spacings from $a = 0.17$ to 0.41 fm, to more fully explore finite volume and discretization effects. We also extend a previously used technique for minimizing lattice artifacts, the appropriate choice of momentum variable or ``kinematic correction'', by considering it more generally as a ``tree-level correction''. We demonstrate that by using tree-level correction, determined by the tree-level behavior of the action being considered, it is possible to obtain scaling behavior over a very wide range of momenta and lattice spacings. This makes it possible to explore the infinite volume and continuum limits of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator.Comment: 24 pages RevTex, 18 figures; Responses to referee comments, minor change

Scaling Behavior of the Landau Gauge Overlap Quark Propagator

The properties of the momentum space quark propagator in Landau gauge are examined for the overlap quark action in quenched lattice QCD. Numerical calculations are done on three lattices with different lattice spacings and similar physical volumes to explore the approach of the quark propagator towards the continuum limit. We have calculated the nonperturbative momentum-dependent wavefunction renormalization function $Z(p^2)$ and the nonperturbative mass function $M(p^2)$ for a variety of bare quark masses and extrapolate to the chiral limit. We find the behavior of $Z(p^2)$ and $M(p^2)$ are in good agreement for the two finer lattices in the chiral limit. The quark condensate is also calculated.Comment: 3 pages, Lattice2003(Chiral fermions

Quark propagator in a covariant gauge

Using mean--field improved gauge field configurations, we compare the results obtained for the quark propagator from Wilson fermions and Overlap fermions on a \3 lattice at a spacing of $a=0.125(2)$ fm.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, talk given by F.D.R. Bonnet at LHP 2001 workshop, Cairns, Australi

Advancement in the understanding of multifragmentation and phase transition for hot nuclei

Recent advancement on the knowledge of multifragmentation and phase transition for hot nuclei is reported. It concerns i) the influence of radial collective energy on fragment partitions and the derivation of general properties of partitions in presence of such a collective energy, ii) a better knowledge of freeze-out properties obtained by means of a simulation based on all the available experimental information and iii) the quantitative study of the bimodal behaviour of the heaviest fragment charge distribution for fragmenting hot heavy quasi-projectiles which allows, for the first time, to estimate the latent heat of the phase transition.Comment: 9 pages, Proceedings of IWM09, November 4-7, Catania (Italy

Nonperturbative improvement and tree-level correction of the quark propagator

We extend an earlier study of the Landau gauge quark propagator in quenched QCD where we used two forms of the O(a)-improved propagator with the Sheikholeslami-Wohlert quark action. In the present study we use the nonperturbative value for the clover coefficient c_sw and mean-field improvement coefficients in our improved quark propagators. We compare this to our earlier results which used the mean-field c_sw and tree-level improvement coefficients for the propagator. We also compare three different implementations of tree-level correction: additive, multiplicative, and hybrid. We show that the hybrid approach is the most robust and reliable and can successfully deal even with strong ultraviolet behavior and zero-crossing of the lattice tree-level expression. We find good agreement between our improved quark propagators when using the appropriate nonperturbative improvement coefficients and hybrid tree-level correction. We also present a simple extrapolation of the quark mass function to the chiral limit.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figures, RevTeX4. Some clarifications and corrections. Final version, to appear in Phys.Rev.

The FLIC Overlap Quark Propagator

FLIC overlap fermions are a variant of the standard (Wilson) overlap action, with the FLIC (Fat Link Irrelevant Clover) action as the overlap kernel rather than the Wilson action. The structure of the FLIC overlap fermion propagator in momentum space is studied, and a comparison against previous studies of the Wilson overlap propagator in quenched QCD is performed. To explore the scaling properties of the propagator for the two actions, numerical calculations are performed in Landau Gauge across three lattices with different lattice spacing $a$ and similar physical volumes. We find that at light quark masses the acti ons agree in both the infrared and the ultraviolet, but at heavier masses some disagreement in the ultraviolet appears. This is attributed to the two action s having different discretisation errors with the FLIC overlap providing superior performance in this regime. Both actions scale reasonably, but some scaling violations are observed

Hadron Properties with FLIC Fermions

The Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermion action provides a new form of nonperturbative O(a)-improvement in lattice fermion actions offering near continuum results at finite lattice spacing. It provides computationally inexpensive access to the light quark mass regime of QCD where chiral nonanalytic behaviour associated with Goldstone bosons is revealed. The motivation and formulation of FLIC fermions, its excellent scaling properties and its low-lying hadron mass phenomenology are presented.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables. Contribution to lecure notes in 2nd Cairns Topical Workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics 2003 (LHP 2003), Cairns, Australia, 22-30 Jul 200

Modeling seismic wave propagation and amplification in 1D/2D/3D linear and nonlinear unbounded media

To analyze seismic wave propagation in geological structures, it is possible to consider various numerical approaches: the finite difference method, the spectral element method, the boundary element method, the finite element method, the finite volume method, etc. All these methods have various advantages and drawbacks. The amplification of seismic waves in surface soil layers is mainly due to the velocity contrast between these layers and, possibly, to topographic effects around crests and hills. The influence of the geometry of alluvial basins on the amplification process is also know to be large. Nevertheless, strong heterogeneities and complex geometries are not easy to take into account with all numerical methods. 2D/3D models are needed in many situations and the efficiency/accuracy of the numerical methods in such cases is in question. Furthermore, the radiation conditions at infinity are not easy to handle with finite differences or finite/spectral elements whereas it is explicitely accounted in the Boundary Element Method. Various absorbing layer methods (e.g. F-PML, M-PML) were recently proposed to attenuate the spurious wave reflections especially in some difficult cases such as shallow numerical models or grazing incidences. Finally, strong earthquakes involve nonlinear effects in surficial soil layers. To model strong ground motion, it is thus necessary to consider the nonlinear dynamic behaviour of soils and simultaneously investigate seismic wave propagation in complex 2D/3D geological structures! Recent advances in numerical formulations and constitutive models in such complex situations are presented and discussed in this paper. A crucial issue is the availability of the field/laboratory data to feed and validate such models.Comment: of International Journal Geomechanics (2010) 1-1

A New Shear Estimator for Weak Lensing Observations

We present a new shear estimator for weak lensing observations which properly accounts for the effects of a realistic point spread function (PSF). Images of faint galaxies are subject to gravitational shearing followed by smearing with the instrumental and/or atmospheric PSF. We construct a `finite resolution shear operator' which when applied to an observed image has the same effect as a gravitational shear applied prior to smearing. This operator allows one to calibrate essentially any shear estimator. We then specialize to the case of weighted second moment shear estimators. We compute the shear polarizability which gives the response of an individual galaxy's polarization to a gravitational shear. We then compute the response of the population of galaxies, and thereby construct an optimal weighting scheme for combining shear estimates from galaxies of various shapes, luminosities and sizes. We define a figure of merit --- an inverse shear variance per unit solid angle --- which characterizes the quality of image data for shear measurement. The new method is tested with simulated image data. We discuss the correction for anisotropy of the PSF and propose a new technique involving measuring shapes from images which have been convolved with a re-circularizing PSF. We draw attention to a hitherto ignored noise related bias and show how this can be analyzed and corrected for. The analysis here draws heavily on the properties of real PSF's and we include as an appendix a brief review, highlighting those aspects which are relevant for weak lensing.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figure

Numerical study of lattice index theorem usingimproved cooling and overlap fermions

We investigate topological charge and the index theorem on finite lattices numerically. Using mean field improved gauge field configurations we calculate the topological charge Q using the gluon field definition with ${\cal O}(a^4)$-improved cooling and an ${\cal O}(a^4)$-improved field strength tensor $F_{\mu\nu}$. We also calculate the index of the massless overlap fermion operator by directly measuring the differences of the numbers of zero modes with left- and right--handed chiralities. For sufficiently smooth field configurations we find that the gluon field definition of the topological charge is integer to better than 1% and furthermore that this agrees with the index of the overlap Dirac operator, i.e., the Atiyah-Singer index theorem is satisfied. This establishes a benchmark for reliability when calculating lattice quantities which are very sensitive to topology.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure